Many people are required to perform regular tests on their blood or other bodily fluid in order to monitor a disease and adjust medication appropriately. For example, diabetes sufferers may be provided with quantities of insulin, for instance by injection, sometimes a number of times daily. The quantity of insulin that is appropriate depends on the person's blood glucose level, so blood glucose level measurement can also occur a number of times daily.
Blood glucose level measurement typically is a multi stage process requiring a number of separate pieces of equipment. A user may be required to carry around a bulky electronic blood glucose meter as well as a supply of test strips and lancet. After lancing the skin to elicit a blood sample, a user must transfer the blood to the test strip, activate the meter and present or insert the test strip into the meter in order to obtain a measurement.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,378,007 B2 discloses a device having a lancet and electrochemical sensor for measuring a blood glucose level. In particular, this document discloses (see column 8) that the sensor and display of the device are disposed on or within a main housing of the device. Separate from the main housing of the device is a sensor disk supporting a plurality of radially arranged sensors. The sensor disk is secured to a spacer ring which is in connection with the main housing via a cam ring. The cam ring may be secured to the main housing by a screw or similar fastening. Thus U.S. Pat. No. 7,378,007 B2 discloses a complex, multi-part device in which various components of the device are supported on separate substrates which are then assembled together.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,641,857 discloses a measuring apparatus having a test element containing an analyte. Adjacent to the test element is a detector for detecting for detecting, optically or electrochemically, a change in the test field and generating an electrical signal. This electrical signal is used to form a measurement result. This document discloses no other detectors or electrical signals.